Willpower is more than mind over matter. It is a complex biological and psychological response, which is also true of the stress response. While stress helps us deal with external pressures, willpower helps us deal with internal conflict. Health psychologist Kelly McGonigal calls it the “pause and plan” response vs. “fight or flight.” Willpower puts the body into a calmer state and sends signals to the prefrontal cortex of the brain, allowing us to make better decisions.

Music has an amazing ability to lift our spirits by releasing the pleasure-related neurotransmitter dopamine as we listen. It is also a powerful way to evoke memory. Music may jog an explicit memory such as “where was I that summer when this song was popular?” but it also summons implicit memories. These are more reactive, emotional memories that occur outside of consciousness.

For centuries, people have sought a youth pill without realizing it is already available and free. It is called sleep. Getting the recommended 7-8 hours per night provides an abundance of benefits, including a healthier heart, an increased ability to fight malignancy, improved learning and memory, and better weight control.

A 2020 study of 168,000 people using data from over 68,000 fitness trackers showed that activity levels were down about 39% while sleep time increased by 20% (1). While the sleep is probably a good thing for most of us, lack of movement is a problem. Not only does sedentary behavior lead to weight gain, but it is connected to greater levels of depression and anxiety.

I was recently asked if I could recommend any healthy meal delivery services. This industry has certainly grown since the first company called Middagsfrid was launched in 2007 in Sweden by Kicki Theander. I reached out to members of the Zing community for the suggestions in this SmartBite.

Sugar increases dopamine levels in the brain, providing pleasure with every sip of soda or bite of chocolate. It also activates the insula in each hemisphere of the brain, triggering an emotional response that rewards us even when we think of a favorite sweet. On top of this, sugar affect other brain regions like…

Self-compassion helps us treat ourselves with the same kindness and caring as we would show to others. If a friend said, "I am so sick of all these restrictions and not being able to go out," you would never say, "Oh, just get over it and be happy for what you've got." Never! Yet that is what we tell ourselves, hoping to shore up our emotions with a stiff upper lip. The problem is, it doesn't work. We end up judging and criticizing ourselves, feeling worse as a result.

There is a big gap between knowing and doing. We can have the best intentions about our health -- but how do we bridge the gap between what we know to be important and taking action on a regular basis? The answer lies in habit.

This week I wanted to share a few practical tips for easing anxious feelings which were provided by my meditation teacher, Cassie Schindler. Cassie is a certified mindfulness educator and coach and founder of The Alternate Path.

For more than five thousand years, "old" was defined as between 60 and 70 years of age. With people living longer, it means that many of us will spend more time in elderhood than childhood. Sadly, at a time when we are living longer than before, we've made old age into a disease -- a condition to be denigrated and denied.

Dr. Louise Aronson, physician and award-winning author, says it's time to rethink aging in America.

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that plays a critical role in our ability to absorb calcium. It is called the “sunshine vitamin” because it produced in the body when sunlight strikes the skin and activates Vitamin D synthesis. It doesn’t take a lot of sunlight.

In my webinars, I talk a lot about the importance of sleep. A participant recently asked if melatonin might help alleviate her chronic insomnia. This was such a good question that I decided to create a blog about it. To understand the answer, it’s important to understand what makes us sleepy in the first place.

If you are one of the 50 million US adults suffering from chronic pain, you know the litany of treatments, including medications, injections, implanted stimulation devices, and surgeries — most of which provide little relief. Instead of the traditional treatments, what if there was a way to train your brain to take an active role in chronic pain management?

Since the start of the pandemic, I have given several presentations on the immune system, separating fact from fiction when it comes to things like Vitamin C, Echinacea, ginger, and so forth. I received several follow up emails asking me about other foods, including a recent one on chicken soup: does it provide real benefit to the immune system?

Cicero declared gratitude to be “the Mother of All Virtues.” Dr. Glenn Fox, a USC researcher at the forefront of gratitude and human performance, describes gratitude as “the most sophisticated of all virtues.” Current research shows positive links between gratitude and health, including more pro-social behaviors that promote resilience and coping.

I delivered a webinar on chronic low-level inflammation and said that too little sleep and too much could increase this “inflammation gone awry.” Since then, I received a number of related questions and decided to share them here.

Our immune system is a wonder. It has evolved over millions of years to fight viruses and heal injuries. This is called acute inflammation, and it is necessary for a healthy life. Yet when this type of inflammation goes awry, it can become chronic low level inflammation. This systemic inflammation is the leading cause of death in the world.

SWAP-MEAT was a 16-week crossover study in which 36 generally healthy adults were divided into two groups. Each group consumed one type of meat (plant or animal) for 8 weeks and then switched to the other type of meat for 8 weeks. The goal was to understand what, if any, health benefits there were from the plant-based vs. animal-based protein.

We depend on our eyes for nearly every aspect of daily life, yet increasing age can result in changes to our eye health and vision. In fact, visual impairment is the most common sensory problem of older adults. Changes in the eye physiology can cause visual problems like near focusing (presbyopia) to more serious conditions such as floaters, cataracts, dry eye, and macular degeneration.

Last week I was dashing out of the house to go on a hike at a nearby park. I got in my car, realized I had forgotten my water bottle, and went inside to retrieve it. Then I decided I wanted a different hiking hat and ran upstairs. When I finally made it back to my car — voila! — no car keys. I searched for 20 minutes until I found them in the refrigerator next to the butter. When I was finally ready to leave, I saw our new neighbors standing in their driveway. They introduced themselves, but I promptly forgot their names before they said their socially distanced goodbyes.